


Counting the Days

by Kayim



Category: Leverage, The Losers - All Media Types
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-11-02
Updated: 2013-01-01
Packaged: 2017-11-17 14:51:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 2,039
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/552766
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kayim/pseuds/Kayim
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eliot and Jensen didn't always get along.  Even when they did.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Day One

**Author's Note:**

> Most of my Jensen/Eliot stories follow a vague continuity, so I decided it was probably time to make it official. 
> 
> This is the story of how they met and moved from being "Jensen" and "Eliot" to being "Jensen and Eliot".
> 
> As can be expected, it's not your typical love story.

"How do you even cope with this guy? He didn't shut up once all day."

Eliot was on edge. He'd tried to relax, knowing that the job was complete and he was in a relatively safe location now, but there was still something bugging him – and he was pretty sure it was the techie.

Clay cast what could only be described as an affectionate gaze back at Jensen, who was perched on a bar stool with his feet up on the bar, and his laptop balancing precariously on his lap. As if to make a point, he was chattering constantly to himself, or possibly to the computer, complete with over-exaggerated hand gestures.

"He's a damned genius with those machines," Clay answered simply. "I've never known anyone else who can do the things he does."

Eliot shrugged, unimpressed - anyone who could successfully switch on a computer and make it load an email program was a genius in Clay's eyes - and turned back to his beer. He'd worked with enough techie-nerds in the past that it took a little bit more to impress him, and he just didn't think that a kid like that would ever be able to make the grade. He'd done what Eliot needed him to do though, which was the only thing preventing Eliot from walking over and smacking him to make him shut up.

"So are we good here?" Eliot asked, draining the last of the bottle. "I need to get back onto home soil with this hard drive before Wednesday."

It had been a pretty simple retrieval, but he'd needed someone with more of a technical background than he had to make it all work. Knowing that Clay was already in the area, Eliot had called him up and asked for a recommendation. The Colonel hadn't even hesitated when he'd suggested Jake Jensen. 

"We're all good," Clay replied, finishing his own drink.

Eliot nodded in reply and stood up to leave, offering Clay a mock salute as he went.

As he reached the door, he turned around and glanced over at the tech one last time. His attention was still firmly locked on whatever he was doing on the laptop, his fingers flying across the keyboard with a speed Eliot considered to be defying the laws of physics. 

"Gotcha," he shouted suddenly, fist pumping in the air. He jumped down from the stool and ran over to Clay. "I found him," he said, all but shoving the laptop under Clay's face. 

"That's my boy," Clay said, slapping Jensen on the back and all but ruffling his hair. Eliot had never seen Clay behave that way, but then he'd also never seen a special forces soldier – albeit a slightly unusual one – beam under the praise. 

Eliot couldn't help but notice the way Jensen's blue eyes lit up behind those ridiculous glasses and the way he bounced on the balls of his feet like a small child. It was the first time Eliot had seen someone in their particular line of work seem so happy. But instead of seeming strange, it seemed completely and utterly... right.

He wondered for a moment if there was anything he could do himself to make Jensen smile again like that. Biting back a sigh, he turned and walked out of the bar, afraid to contemplate where that particular line of thinking had come from.


	2. Day Two

"Fancy seeing you here."

Eliot silently congratulated himself on not spinning around on his bar stool and decapitating Jensen with his bare hands.

"I'm ten minutes walk from my apartment, in the bar I come to almost every weekend, and you're supposed to still be in Argentina," he growled, taking a deep swallow of his beer. "I can't imagine this was exactly an accident."

He leaned over the counter to pull another beer from the fridge. Juliet behind the bar simply smiled at him; there were some customers who she considered to be more than just regulars, and Eliot had helped her out with drunken idiots on more than one occasion. 

Jensen sat himself down and accepted the beer with a smile. "Just thought I'd pop in and say hi," he said with a shrug. A cellphone chirped in his pocket and he fished it out, looking at the display. "Clay says Hi too," he added before tapping off a reply and sliding the phone back into his jacket pocket.

Eliot refused to be the one to ask the obvious question, so he stayed quiet, waiting to see how long it would be before Jensen caved. He counted the seconds in his head. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six....

"You see, there I was in the middle of the jungle, wearing nothing but my underpants...."

Eliot bit back a smile and listened to Jensen's rambling tale of intrigue, danger and mosquitoes. He was almost completely sure that the part about the buried treasure was - at best - exaggerated, but he found himself grinning at the story of Roque and the anaconda. It had been less than two weeks since the retrieval job where he'd met the hacker, but Eliot admitted to himself that he may have missed the sound of Jensen's inane commentary.

When Jensen told him about Pooch's attempt to hotwire the drug dealer's speedboat, laughing so hard that he actually started to cry and almost fell off the barstool, Eliot realized something else. 

He was actually starting to like this guy.


	3. Day Three

From: youknowwho@youknowwhere.com  
To: heavyhitter@watchingyou.com  
Subject: Your email needs to be better secured

You know I can see every email you send, right? I thought you had a hacker on that team of yours. Tell him to drop me a mail and I'll get you all set up properly.

The guys say Hi - except Cougs who raised his eyebrow and nodded, which is as close as you'll get to casual chit chat from him - and Clay asked when you were going to be back stateside. He growled something about an old score that needed settling on behalf of both of you. I have no idea what he's talking about, and I'm not entirely sure I even want to know. Just give him a call, will you.

Did I tell you about the brunette from the bar? The one who slipped me her phone number before I left.

Turned out she just wanted to know your number.

I didn't give it to her. 

Just saying.

J.


	4. Day Four

When his phone rang with an irritating ring tone that Eliot was pretty sure he didn't program himself, he knew who it was.

There was no greeting, no small talk, just Jensen continuing a conversation that Eliot didn't remember starting. "You should have seen the look on Clay's face when the car exploded...."

"Jensen. Not now," Eliot interrupted. Admittedly, he wasn't in the middle of anything important - Parker was already halfway down the side of the building and Hardison had her covered from the van - but he was still on a job. 

The voice on the other end of the line went quiet. "Oh."

Eliot rolled his eyes. "I'm in the middle of a job," he explained in a hushed whisper as the silhouettes of two security guards came around the corner. With a sigh, he flicked the phone to bluetooth and slipped his earpiece in. "Fine, but if I get my ass kicked, I'm coming over there to take it out on you."

"Cool," came the reply, before Jensen started in on the latest escapades of the Losers. As expected, the security guards spotted Eliot - he was there as a distraction to keep the other two safe, so that was his job - and came at him full swing.

"Did you just kick a guy in the balls? Harsh, man."

Eliot threw his head back, butting the second security guard in the nose, listening out for the crack that told him he'd hit home. "Are you back seat fighting?" he snapped. "Just let me get on with this."

On the other end of the line, he heard Jensen chuckle. "Did I tell you about Clay's latest fling? This one's going to be a serious bit of trouble. Wears a necklace made of human ears."

It didn't take long for Eliot to convince the security guards to stay down, all accompanied by the soundtrack of Jensen's voice in his ear.


	5. Day Five

"You weren't supposed to be here for another week."

Eliot stood in the doorway as Jensen bounded towards him. The hacker stopped just in front of him, bouncing on the balls of his feet, his arms twitching as though he wanted to reach out and hug Eliot, but wasn't sure if he'd be left alive if he did.

"Idiot," Eliot grinned, reaching out and pulling Jensen into a hug. A small voice in the back of his mind told him that he barely knew this guy, and letting him this close into his personal space was badbadbad, but Eliot pointedly ignored the paranoia, enjoying the novelty.

"So how long you staying for? I found this awesome little lake that's got a waterfall and everything..."

Eliot pulled away, acutely aware that the rest of his team were standing behind him, and held his hands up in surrender. "Breathe. We're only here for a few hours."

For the first time, Jensen saw the other people in the room. The smile on his face dropped slightly. "Oh, hi," he said, pushing his glasses up his nose and running a hand through his hair. 

Parker was the first one to push forward. She stood toe to toe with Jensen for a moment, the two of them staring at each other in silence. There was a strange tension between them, both sizing each other up, until Jensen broke the stalemate and grinned. Returning the smile, Parker reached out and flung her arms around Jensen's neck, jumping up to wrap her legs around his waist. 

Eliot just shook his head. He should have known.

With Parker seemingly unwilling to extract herself - and Eliot didn't even want to think about the damage that could be done if those two set their minds to it - Jensen walked over towards the rest of the team, carrying the thief as though she was nothing more than a child. He reached out and offered his hand, first to Nate and then Sophie, receiving a smile from the latter and a vague nod from the former.

When he reached Hardison, Eliot watched as Jensen's expression changed. The two hackers may as well as been pacing around each other, seeking dominance, although Hardison's gaze flicked between Jensen and Parker.

Almost as suddenly as she'd pounced on him, Parker leapt back down and moved to stand next to Hardison, her hand slipping silently into his, reminding Eliot that Parker could be a lot more intuitive than most people gave her credit for.

He stepped towards the trio, realizing as he did that with the exception of the hand-holding, he was mirroring Parker's actions. 

"Hardison, Jensen. Jensen, Hardison."

For a moment Eliot tensed. He couldn't verbalize the reason why, but he desperately wanted the two of them to get along. He watched the two of them, both unmoving, fingers twitching by their sides as though preparing for a quick-draw.

As always, Jensen spoke first. "The IBM job?"

Hardison nodded, a flash of pride evident on his face.

"Nice."

"Buenos Aires?"

Jensen grinned. "One of my personal favorites. You wouldn't believe what I had to go through to get that one in place."

It was enough. The floodgates opened, and the two hackers dissolved into a conversation filled with half-finished sentences and acronyms - about a third of which Eliot managed to follow. Like Parker, he stood quietly off to the side, as Jensen and Hardison each pulled out a smartphone and began transmitting programs and codes to each other, feeling more left out than he ever had done before.

He didn't want to think too much about the jealousy that was forming in the pit of his stomach, and certainly didn't want to consider what it meant. But when Jensen broke off from his conversation and turned to smile at him, Eliot figured out exactly what the feeling meant.

It meant he was screwed.


End file.
